Apologies that it's been a while coming, but my No Limits recreation is now available to download. I don't post often, but like some of my others, this one is pretty epic.
I wanted to give my model a bit more of an X-Sector feel to it, so I've added a little bit of themeing to the station and given the cars unique textures. I've also created a quick Oblivion-esque logo, based on the look of the batwing/cobra element:
My logo:
Station with minor theming added:
I'd quite like to see the cars as mini Oblivion shuttles, so their design has been inspired as such. I've plastered the logo all over them and given them hazard arrows. The theme for these being Black and White, instead of Black and Orange. There are now 8 of these in the recreation: timed so that when operating smoothly there are 4 are out on the course, and 4 in the station (presumably with 2 loading and 2 unloading).
Since we now think it will use normal Eurofighter track, I've converted some sections to the more likely ladder track. Most noteably the brakes, lifts and the track abover the WC's. Due to the way the ride has to span the existing WC's and that there are only minor drops here, it is my best guess that it will use ladder track. Just up to the two drops.
Another view showing the track abover the WC's:
I've also tweaked the snack hut in the queue and stilted platfrom from the white blobs that were previously visible on my old version.
The queue is one serious cattle-pen:
I've also added a quick representation of the arched entrance.
I've also been doing a little bit of tweaking here and there the past few days to get it working as I wanted. The main issue being with the lifts. My old model (the one in the POV) was based on consecutive cars dueling. So if the cars were numbered 1-8, car 3 would duel with car 2 first, then car 4. But the problem with this, is that it means the gap between each car must include the lift time. In other words, cars can only despatch every 45 seconds or so.
I have now altered the the blocking so that car 3 would duel with car 1 first, and then car 5. This has reduced the despatch time to a car every 35 seconds. It also gives more realistic operation. If you watch the POV, the car immediately engaged the vertical lift to start its climb. But if you watch any Eurofighter it always stops at the base at the lift, probably to ensure the block beyond is clear so the car doesn't have to stop and re-start on the vertical. So when you start the simulator, be aware that the first car to duel twice will be the third car despatched.
Hence the cars do run more realistically, the only problem now is that there is quite a pause at the end of the first half, as you wait to be allowed on to the vertical lift. It's about 20 seconds or so. So if this really does happen I'd hope there'd be some theming element prior to the vertical lift, a bit like SAW has the video screens before it's tower. What could be more interesting is if this part was buried in a tunnel, so you do a reverse oblivion and rise vertically out of the ground. I think that would be pretty cool.
Also, it is worth noting that due to the limitations in No Limits (!?!) the cars do not allows duel in the same way. No Limits always gives a slight variation in despatch times, even though I've given it restrictions. So sometimes the vertical lift is slightly ahead, sometimes it's behind. But the overall effect is pretty much the same.
So with despatch time at around 35 seconds, throughput for the ride will be approximately 800pph. This is based on the ride using standard Eurofighter cars:
If they were to have an extra row, this would increase throughput by 50% to 1200pph. I'm sure with more programming the despatch time can be reduced a little, but it will always be limited by the length of the final part of the ride. It takes approximately 35 seconds from the top of the vertical lift to clearing the final breaks. That is if my recreation is running at truly realistic speeds...
There is more I could do to improve the recration, but even the modifictions I've just done has taken many hours. So it's over to you to improve on it and, well, do whatever you want with it. Oh, you will notice my track isn't the smoothest, so you might want to tweak that as your first priority. My station building model is also quite rough, and the roll on the way to the first lift was added as a bit of fun.
So here is the link to the zip file, be sure to read the instructions first so that it will load properly:
http://www.mediafire.com/?i41c07sbznntkoo
Enjoy the ride...
PS: If you have any problems downloading or using the files, please let me know.
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